So when we're mountain biking through the redwood forest of Rotorua, we go off on this grade 2 path, and it's got some pretty steep drops that freak Janelle and me out at first. I see JT fly out on some of them, and I kinda reason to myself "Well, A) JT just made it, so it's okay. And B) it's the only possible way to go, so it must be doable. I guess you just have to let go of inhibitions and just go" (This is a big thing I've learned here that has started to be applied to all aspects of my being). SO ANYWAY I start tearing shit up and I feel cool about it and we're all trying to keep together so we'll brake and let others go by, and one of the people that passes us is this girl who can't be more than 7 and she's tearing that shit up like it's her job. She's zipping through trees until her rainbow helmet and tassels on her handle bars are no more than a kaleidoscopic blur. It was hard to feel like a badass or like I had grown as a person at age 21 when some little 7 year old girl dressed in bright colors is kicking my shit all over the track, but I'd never mountain biked before in my life and she was probably a robot anyway so fuck her because her speed was inhuman. (6/8/09)